The stated objective is a 0.2-point-of-GDP improvement in the public deficit at the end of the Senate’s work. Christine Lavarde also hopes for an improvement in the budget balance of around €6 billion. The target in the government’s initial text is a deficit of 5% in 2027.
The Senate majority intends to make the abolition of the 10% allowance granted to retirees one of the most visible measures in its version of the finance bill. This provision, inherited from the First World War, would, according to figures put forward in the Senate, save €900 million.
She also proposes extending the waiting period in the civil service to align it with the private sector, raising it to three days.
This 0.2-point gain does not necessarily ensure that the deficit will fall below 5%, given the deterioration in economic conditions.
On the local-government side, which the Senate represents under the Constitution, attention remains particularly close. While the government is targeting €5.6 billion in the finance bill, the Senate majority wants to “reduce the effort by nearly €3 billion,” bringing it to “between €2 billion and €2.5 billion,” Christine Lavarde explains.
To hope to see some of its amendments taken up, the Senate majority will be able to count only on a text adopted under Article 49.3, with the risk of a no-confidence vote against the government, or on a conclusive joint committee.
Launching major reforms remains difficult at the end of a term, in an Assembly without a majority and fragmented, while lawmakers are thinking first of their re-election against the backdrop of the presidential campaign. The Senate’s changes will be numerous; what will remain of them in this highly uncertain context is still unclear.